Job search in 2009

I am currently searching for a job as a .NET developer in the Washington DC Metro area; which includes most of the Maryland up to the Baltimore city. I have to say that the job market has tighten up considerably. Last time I was in the job market in the June 2008, I was getting about 5-6 calls from recruiters everyday for a month after I posted my resume on Dice, Careerbuilder and Monster. But, this time around in January 2009 the market is drastically different. I get a call, maybe a couple, a day and I can figure out from recruiters describing jobs that they are talking about the same job. For example, last week I received a call from a recruiter about a SharePoint developer job in Alexandria, VA. Today, another recruiter called me a for a SharePoint developer job in the Alexandria, VA. Both of these recruiters emailed me the job description and as I was reading the second job description today, I realized that the second job description was identical to the first job description. Two different recruiters from two different consulting companies sent me the same job description without modifying a single sentence or word in it.

Then there was a third recruiter who called me today. Instead of trying to show me some jobs that match my profile he was desperately trying to extract leads from me. He asked me if I was in the market and if I was looking for a new job. I said I was. Then he told me that he will keep his eyes and ears open for me but he then immediately proceeded to ask me about my previous managers. He wanted me to share my previous manager's phone numbers with him. At that time I realized that these recruiters are also getting desperate about their own business. They are not able to get the leads and are not able to place the candidates at the companies. The companies are no longer hiring like they used to.